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Google hasn’t given up on social network Orkut, launches deeper YouTube integration

Google is debuting a deeper integration between YouTube and Orkut, the company announced on its first social network’s official blogs in English and Portuguese.

Following the announcement, Orkut now features a pretty slick YouTube widget, which lets users listen to music playlists while browsing through the network’s profiles and communities.

To use the widget, all you have to do is to type the name of an artist you like, and YouTube will automatically start playing videos and sharing your activity with your friends.

The feature actually works with different kinds of videos and playlists, but it is with music that it is particularly relevant.

While you can watch the videos in a small or larger format within Orkut, you can also choose to minimize the player and still keep playing music in the background.

The concept itself isn’t entirely new, and Google+ already features deep integration with YouTube. Yet, it is interesting to see that Google hasn’t given up on its original social network. As a matter of fact, its Brazilian subsidiary keeps on adding new features for its Brazilian users, despite the fact that Facebook has recently overtaken Orkut in the only country where it was still a leader.

While it remains Orkut’s long-term fate remains to be confirmed, today’s announcement is certainly good news for companies such as Hootsuite, which has recently launched an Orkut app to attend the millions of Brazilians who are still using this network.

Do you think Orkut still has a future? Let us know in the comments.

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